People in this country are upset upset at school boards, town councils & local levels.
What YOU can do about it:
Vote, AND know know you are voting for!

The following is an excellent excerpt from Dave Ross’s commentary on KIRO FM radio 97.3 Tuesday, April 7.

“While Barack Obama is magically in Iraq, back at home, a citizen protest is developing in the form of tea parties in 500 cities scheduled for Tax Day, April 15th.

It’s being coordinated in Chicago by a web marketer Eric Odom:
“A pack of cigarettes is $10 a pack. And then the government in Illinois is talking about raising the state state income tax by another full percent and we have, in Chicago, I believe, a 10.5% sales tax.”

And it’s not just Chicago, local government everywhere is out of control.

And yet, I thought the Tea Party movement was about the FEDERAL government…

“A lot of people have asked ‘When are you going to march on Washington?’ We’re saying ‘That’s not really…’ The folks that are coming out are coming out because they’re upset about what’s going on on their school board…”

School boards — town councils, local level.

OK, but we vote for those local people — why don’t we just vote for better people?

“People that are coming out on the streets have never been involved in the political process in their lives.” -Eric

“So they haven’t been voting?”- Dave

“Many of them have never even voted.” -Eric

“That’s the problem isn’t it? So they come out for a tea party, they’ll rally all day, but they won’t take two minutes to vote?”- Dave

“Hold on, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There’s no question here that we are responsible for the mess that we’re in.” -Eric

Ah — so the tea parties are about Americans overthrowing their own apathy and actually voting. And Eric says they’ll even take it a step further:

“Take that a step further and actually start investigating the folks that they’re voting for.”

Wow… not only voting but knowing who they’re voting for! Now that IS revolutionary.”

Ed. Note:
One hopes that the voters in Yelm know who they are voting for this November when their Mayor and many on the City Council are up for re-election. The last two Council elections have had few to oppose the incumbents and give citizens choice in voting. We do not know if anyone will step up this year to oppose the Mayor or City Council up for re-election.

One thing is for sure:
The local newspaper editor/publisher has all but endorsed Mayor Harding as a mayoral candidate without even knowing who else might step up to the plate for this position by the July registration date.
While no one has stepped forward to oppose the mayor, someone could!

Does he KNOW who he is voting for?
How can he until the date of registering as a candidate is closed and we know who has declared candidacy?

This is a great question for Yelm voters to engage over the next 7 months-
Do YOU know who you are voting for?

From the April 7th Olympian:
Learn about running for public office

A workshop for people considering a run for office this year is set for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. April 23 at the Elections Shop at the Mottman Center, 2905 29th Ave. S.W., Suite E, Tumwater.

The workshop is designed to give candidates information about filing with the Public Disclosure Commission, preparing and submitting candidate statements and photographs for the voters pamphlet, and the role of the media in campaigns, among other things.

For more information, call Sandy Baxter, elections outreach specialist, at 360-786-5408 or e-mail baxters@co.thurston.wa.us.